This is good news. Franklin was one of two (Gyorko) I hung onto in Ottoneu this season because of your early scouting reports. All other prospects were traded away in exchange for a championship, but I may have a long road back to the top. Thankfully, I also picked up a cheap Brad Miller, so looking forward to seeing my Clemson brethren in SEA sometime soon.
Who do you see as the better offensive player between Miller and Franklin?

I think the Kennedy comp severely undersells Franklin. I think you wanted to use that comp but actually talked yourself into the reality that he’s likely to be significantly better than that, but oddly the comp stayed. I think he could be closer to a Jose Vidro or Carlos Guillen offensively in a couple of years.

there’s no reason to think his defense won’t improve… heck I don’t think he’s bad now and being that he’s already pretty polished and a good athlete, I’d be surprised if he didn’t become a + fielding 2Bman.

If the M’s had a great package offered to them right now in exchange for any one of Ackley, Franklin, Miller or Romero…who should they trade?
To me it seems to come down to Ackley or Franklin as they both project to be good-hitting, decent-fielding second basemen. By the trade deadline next year this is a choice the M’s may be making. I think that’s the timespan Ackley has to show improvement if Franklin, Miller and Romero continue their progress.

I included Romero on my 1B list at #2. Franklin was the top 2B, Zunino the top C, and Miller will be ranked prominently as a SS as well. I don’t think any of these guys other than Zunino are elite prospects, but it’s a deep group.

Not really saying he won’t improve, but Kennedy’s UZR/150 in his peak years was +48.7 from 2002-2005. On paper, he was the elite second base defender in the game during that time period and produced 39 million in WAR value.

I think youre looking at the comparison all wrong. If Franklin turns into an above average regular that’s in the league for a decade or more, I think that would be hitting his ceiling. I’ve been discussing this amongst other baseball nerds like myself, and we all said the same sorta thing. The increase in popularity of fantasy baseball, especially dynasty leagues(for which baseball is suited best), more and more people have become interested in researching prospects. Couple that with the advancement of sites such as FG that focus on metrics and advanced statistical data, and the overall attention paid to prospects has grown substantially in recent years. Moreover, in order to get people hooked, every player has this unknown “ceiling” that has become the most overused phrase in baseball IMO. Just because someone is listed in a top 100 prospect list, doesn’t mean they profile to be a perennial all-star. Maybe I’m wrong, but from what I understand, maybe the top 10-15 prospects are considered potentially elite. If that. Franklin has been ranked all over the place from the lists I’ve seen. As high as top 20, and as low as 70-80. For the most par though, he’s around 40-60. I think if he moved to 2B, it might bump his value slightly, but what I’m trying to get at here is that I feel there’s a common misconception that all top prospects are expected to be studs in the bigs. If you take the guys listed from 40-60 on a given list, I think most scouts would tell you that if even 50% of them became average regulars in the bigs, that would be more than usual. Maybe 1-2 of them become studs and if it’s 4-5, it’s prolly because there were several injured guys or very young guys that turned out to be better than first thought. I think if Franklin hit .270-.275 with 15-20 HR, and 10-15 SB, that’d be considered a resounding success by the Mariners FO. Not everyone is Robinson Cano.

was this directed at me? I didn’t say Cano as a comp. I said maybe Vidro or Guillen. and btw, I’m going primarily by the few times I saw Franklin, not by lists. Also in his favor is that he’s been young for every league he’s been in. To me, he’s just one of the better more polished IF prospects in the game now. That doesn’t mean I think he’s going to be a perennial AS, but that is not to say that he couldn’t be.

The physique, swing path and early one-handed follow through are all reminiscent of Adam Kennedy. You could mash up Daniel Murphy, Kelly Johnson, Ben Zobrist, Neil Walker, Dustin Ackley along with Kennedy to come up with something more comparable, but not literally. That would be illegal.

I think you answered you own question. A great package right now is probably out of the question, but give Ackley a chance to rebuild his swing and play healthy, and give the younger guys a chance to force the M’s hand in either direction. I would add Seager’s name to the list of movable parts as well.

I noticed in the first part of the video, he was really only swinging with one hand. Then, he kept both hands on the bat through the ball before finishing with a Charlie Lau like follow through. I bet that made a HUGE difference.

Zunino? not that they are dealing either of those guys anyway… in any case, the M’s could certainly put together a very good package to get a bat. There is certainly a surplus of IFers that isn’t very far away.

It seems like the M’s have a logjam at second base. I would like to see Seager move to second and the M’s go after a third baseman in the offseason like David Wright or maybe Rendon. I would assume that Ackley will end up in the outfield or first base. Franklin would probably have to be a utility player or maybe part of a package that brings a guy like Wright or Rendon to the M’s.

Mike, essentially you’re arguing that the M’s will find a better bat to play 3b, than 1b or OF. That strikes me as illogical. Or do you feel that Ackley’s bat will develop that much better if he moves off 2b, where his defense has been fine?

Name me a player, any player, who was dealt as a PTBNL after being drafted 7 months before their names can be included. The longest wait I can think of for a traded draft pick was the month or so for Skaggs during the Haren trade. Just because it CAN happen, doesn’t mean any other organization will wait that long. There’s a big difference there.

MIke,
not sure why, but this has gone totally off-topic. I thought the debate point was whether or not the M’s had prospects they could package together to bring back a 1Bman or corner OFer. Whether or not one prospect alone could yield something is irrelevant if a package of players could get it done.